Latest: Singapore single mother awaits death row in Malaysia for drug trafficking. On the pretext of a business trip to China, Iqah was handed a suitcase containing heroin arranged by her Nigerian boyfriend and was arrested by Malaysian Immigration. A campaign is underway to raise funds for the appeal. To find out more, read

We have also heard that since Vui Kong's appeal started, there has been an unofficial stay of execution for all prisoners on death row in Changi Prison, pending the decision of the court on Yong's case. As the case has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal, we anticipate a Changi gallows bloodbath in a scale not seen since the Pulau Senang uprising in 1965 when 18 men were convicted of murder and hanged in a single Friday morning.

Singapore, which routinely persecute dissenters and critics, continue to hang young drug runners while at the same time work closely with Burmese military generals, and has invested billions in business ties with Burma, one of the biggest heroin manufacturing countries the world.

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If you know someone who's charged in a capital case, received the death sentence, or is on death row in Singapore and if you have have your side of the story to tell, contact us at sgdeathpenalty [at] gmail.com

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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Malaysian woman to hang for 21.48g heroin

A Malaysian couple who were due to get married drove into Singapore two years ago with 21.48g of heroin bundles in their car.

The pair were caught, charged and put on trial.

On Friday, the High Court acquitted Mas Swan Adnan, 27, but sent his fiancee Roshamima Roslan, 24, to the gallows for trafficking in 15g or more of the drug.

In his judgment yesterday, Justice Steven Chong said the prosecution had to prove that the two of them knew exactly what sort of drugs they were bringing into Singapore.

Justice Chong said the evidence showed, however, that Mas Swan believed his girlfriend when she told him that the bundles contained Ecstasy pills.

Roshamima's claim was not believable, the judge said, adding that the prosecution proved that she knew that illicit drugs were hidden in their car when they entered Singapore.

When Roshamima was put on the stand, she failed to give testimony that she believed the bundles to contain drugs other than heroin.

In fact, she gave all kinds of explanations when confronted with objective evidence such as text messages; four times, she changed her story of whom she and Mas Swan were supposed to meet the day they were caught.

Her fiance, on the other hand, had consistently stated in his police statements and in court that he believed the bundles contained Ecstasy pills that he was delivering for a Singaporean man known only as Mickey.

Justice Chong said Mas Swan came across as a 'mild-mannered and somewhat timid' person who followed Roshamima's instructions, and that she was the 'assertive and dominant personality'.

The court heard that Roshamima was a drug smuggler before he became one, and that it was she who co-opted him into the trafficking ring.

In short, she played a larger role in the delivery of drugs, noted Justice Chong.

Mas Swan was not immediately released from custody. Prosecutors told the court there would be a lapse of time before he can go free; it is not known how long this will be.

On the night of May 6, 2009, the couple had driven into Singapore through the Woodlands checkpoint.

When an immigration officer scanned Mas Swan's passport, he was immediately alerted to that name being on the blacklist.

The officer then directed Mas Swan to drive to an inspection pit, where a manual search of the interior and undercarriage of the car turned up nothing incriminating.

However, an X-ray scan detected three dark spots in the front left door panel. When the panel was opened, three bundles wrapped in tape were retrieved.

The couple were immediately arrested.

The contents of the bundles were later analysed and found to contain 21.48g of heroin.

I hope this is true. I searched and while I could not find anything that clearly stated that she would be spared I did find some sites with lengthy legal discussions that seemed to suggest to me that the male's defence may have also been accepted for the female on appeal. Please be true!

And as I previously called out those in the Singapore criminal justice system for willingly participating in imposing terrifyingly uncivilized punishments I give my proper respects to those people of conscience in the system who use whatever means available to them to spare people and their families from such a fate case by case as well as those in and out of the system working to deny the state the power to kill people who have perpetrated no violence against another.